Jquery :: Passing Variables From Php?

Im simply trying to make a dynamic searchbar so that the results pop up as someone write in the keywords. Problem 1 :When i pass foreign char types through jquery's $.ajax(); such as:

[code]....

they get translated to some weird characters when i try to compare them in the mysql database.javascript side:

Code:

$("#id_study4").keyup(function() {
var keyword = $("input[name=study4]").val();
var school_id = $("select[name=school4]").val();

[code]....

And the second problem is simply when i get he search results, i have the keyword emphasized with bold font weight, and text underline so that people can see. The problem here is that if i search with the keyword bach, then result becomes <b>bach</b>elor with all small letters when it should be <b>Bach<b/>elor. The way i have done this can be seen below:

Code:

str_ireplace($keyword, "<b>".$keyword."</b>", $study['study_name'])